FEMINIST SOLIDARITY, REFLECTIVE SOLIDARITY - THEORIZING CONNECTIONS AFTER IDENTITY POLITICS

This article presents the concept of reflective solidarity as an ideal of feminist coalition. Reflective solidarity is defined as the mutual expectation of a responsible orientation to relationship. Situating i tself among other feminist efforts to theorize connections after ident ity politics, the article builds from a critical appraisal of recent w ork by Shane Phelan (1994), Lee Quinby (1994), and Donna Haraway (1991 ). It argues that these works contribute significantly to feminist the ory when they are understood in the context of communication and dialo gue. The remainder of the paper develops this context through an analy sis of the communicative underpinnings of the word ''we'' and through the development of the concept of the perspective of situated, hypothe tical thirds.